Stormlight hiatus, Mistborn Era 3 and Elantris sequels: Brandon Sanderson outlines the next phase of the Cosmere

Brandon Sanderson is one of the fantasy genre's most prolific authors. He's also amazingly transparent about his slate of upcoming projects. Every year, Sanderson publishes an annual "State of the Sanderson" post on his blog around the time of his birthday in late December, where he talks about what he worked on in the preceding year and outlines what he has coming down the pipeline.

The most recent State of the Sanderson post just went up on Brandon Sanderson's website, and it contains some extremely exciting updates. Next year, Sanderson will cap off the first arc of The Stormlight Archive with Wind and Truth, the fifth novel in his massive epic fantasy series which began with The Way of Kings. After that, he'll be taking a break to work on other series before diving back into Stormlight following an in-world time jump which will occur between books 5 and 6.

This year, dubbed "The Year of Sanderson," saw a massive growth spurt for Sanderon's publishing company Dragonsteel, which independently released his four self-published Secret Projects to the more than 185,000 people who backed the Kickstarter. There was a lot to pore over in this State of the Sanderson post. It included news for the future of Stormlight, as well as Mistborn Era 3 and the long-awaited sequels to Sanderson's debut fantasy novel Elantris. Let's hit the highlights.

Brandon Sanderson is ending his Year of Sanderson in style

The first thing of note about Sanderson's update is that he confirmed that the Year of Sanderson is at an end...and he's happy to leave it that way. In addition to mailing out the four Secret Project books to backers of his record-shattering Kickstarter, Sanderson's company Dragonsteel also delivered monthly subscription boxes of merchandise themed around various fictional worlds the author has created. It was such a logistical challenge that the company expanded to a new, much larger warehouse last year to accommodate it.

In both the State of Sanderson post as well as a YouTube send-off video (which you can watch above), Sanderson stated that he has no plans to keep running with the subscription service. For the time being, he's happy to let that end. "We will do more awesome things in the future. They may not be quite like this. I'm not sure we can ever replicate this," Sanderson explained in the video. "I'm not sure if we would want to, because it was lightning in a bottle that struck at just the right time, and I hope you've enjoyed the books we've released, the Secret Projects....As I always said, I like the idea of a subscription box, if it has an end. I am about endings."

Sanderson explained a bit more in his blog post, drawing a comparison between the demand for more subscription boxes and some advice he'd received early in his career, when another author told him he should write more books in The Wheel of Time series after Sanderson completed it following the death of original author Robert Jordan in order tomake sure his "future is secure."

"That might have been the smart business decision, but I rejected it immediately—because that wasn’t what the Wheel of Time needed. And when others came to me and asked if I wanted to do a follow-up trilogy, I told them what I’ve always said: Robert Jordan didn’t want it done, so I don’t think I can do it in good conscience. More isn’t always better.

In this case, we’ve had five(!) new releases in one year. I don’t want or intend this to become the norm. I might try something like it again someday, but in the meantime we’re going to slow back down. Next year, we’ll likely only have the one book release: Stormlight 5. In addition, we are not going to try to continue the subscription box. We put all our best ideas into this year’s boxes, and we’re extremely pleased with the quality of what we created. It’s time to be done."

Brandon Sanderson

We're currently living in an era where media over-saturation is a very real danger; just look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars. Sanderson's decision to slow things down next year rather than focus on growth for growth's sake is admirable. I wish more creative companies would follow suit.

In classic Sanderson fashion, even as Dragonsteel slows down from what was surely an extremely busy year, they still have some big plans for next year. The company will be running a crowd-funding campaign for the leatherbound edition of the second Stormlight Archive novel, Words of Radiance; that launches on March 5, 2024 to mark the 10th anniversary of the book's release. They'll also be doing a crowdfunding campaign for The Stormlight Archive pen and paper RPG with Brotherwise Games. And then there's Dragonsteel convention 2024, which runs from December 5-7 and aligns with the highly-anticipated release of Wind and Truth. It sounds like Dragonsteel is still going to have a very busy year.

There's a lot more Sanderson news to go over. Click on:

Mistborn Era 3 and Elantris sequel release windows revealed

One thing Sanderson always does in these yearly blog posts is lay out a rough sketch of what he thinks he'll be working on for the next few years. With the end of Stormlight's first arc in sight, the author has an unusual opportunity for a bit of a break ahead, without the usual Stormlight book in his immediate writing rotation.

Instead, the next major Cosmere books he'll be working on are the third trilogy of Mistborn novels—working titled Ghostbloods—and two sequels to his debut novel and first published entry in the Cosmere, Elantris (2005). "I expect to start Ghostbloods (the name of the Era Three series) on January 1st, 2025. Half of next year will be revisions on Stormlight, and the rest I’ll spend catching up on things (like doing a White Sand prose novel update) that I’ve let languish a little too much lately," Sanderson explained. "I’ll be writing Ghostbloods straight through, maybe with Elantris sequels in between, and don’t want to release any of them until they are all done."

Here are Sanderson's projected release windows for the Ghostbloods trilogy as well as the two Elantris sequels he has planned:

• December 2028: Ghostbloods 1
• Summer 2029: Elantris 2
• December 2029: Ghostbloods 2
• Summer 2030: Elantris 3
• December 2030: Ghostbloods 3

Now, you might notice that those dates go quite a while past 2024, when the fifth Stormlight book Wind and Truth releases. There will still be other Sanderson books out between then and 2028—you'd be crazy to think there won't. But according to his projected schedule those will primarily be part of the Skyward sequel series, which Sanderson is participating in in an advisory and editorial role as author Janci Patterson writes the books. Skyward is officially Sanderson's "best received, best selling, and best reviewed non-Cosmere work." The fourth and final novel in the original series, Defiant, landed on shelves in late November, 2023.

Sanderson will also be working on some other projects, like the "definitive novelization" of his story White Sand, as well as a Stormlight novella called Horneater about the Bridge Four member Rock.

Mistborn movie is "on pause," as Sanderson "decide[s] on a strategy"

Sanderson also gave us updates about film adaptations of his work. Despite his popularity, Sanderson has yet to have any of his books turned into movies or television shows. That's not for lack of trying; the author has occassionally updated fans on his YouTube channel about his progress in Hollywood, especially since the success of the Secret Project Kickstarter in 2022.

Mistborn is the main Cosmere property that Sanderson has spoken about turning into a movie, even discussing writing a script for a screen treatment. It sounds like for now, the Mistborn movie is on ice.

"The Mistborn film has been in development but has run into some hiccups and is on pause for now, but I hope to have more news to share in 2024. But really, there’s not much else to report. Snapshot (the novella) is still being tinkered with at Universal. It might be the only thing under option right now, because I basically put everything else on hold, despite interest, as I decide on a strategy.

Tress would make a pretty great animated feature though, don’t you think?"

Brandon Sanderson

Tress of the Emerald Sea was the first of Sanderson's released Secret Projects, a whimsical story inspired in part by The Princess Bride. And...yeah, that would make a pretty great animated movie now that I think about it.

Let's end the round-up in Roshar, the setting for Sanderon's biggest series:

The Stormlight Archive is going on hiatus

One other major announcement that Sanderson dropped is that following the release of Wind and Truth in December 2024, The Stormlight Archive is "going on hiatus" for a while. He doesn't go into too much detail about that, keeping most of the focus rightfully on Wind and Truth, the upcoming fifth book in the series. That one is a big deal; fans have known for years that The Stormlight Archive will consist of two major arcs with a large time jump between, so we're certain to see some very important events in Wind and Truth. I imagine it will feel like an ending in its own right.

We can start to get an idea of how long that hiatus could last from Sanderson's tentative release schedule. Sanderson outlines all the way to 2030, and the only Stormlight project on the docket is the Horneater novella. That means that after Wind and Truth, we're likely getting a gap of at least six years before he publishes the next mainline Stormlight book. He even talks about how he's delaying writing Horneater for when he wants an excuse to return to Roshar during the hiatus.

"I realized that I would like to be able to write [Horneater] sometime in the next couple of years when I’m missing Roshar, and want to jump back to tell a story there," Sanderson explained. "I don’t know when this will be though. It will likely be between one of the upcoming Mistborn Era Three novels. So…we’ll see."

So prepare for the long wait, my friends. Following Wind and Truth, we'll have at least six years to miss Roshar before we return.

Cosmere books are on the way from other authors

A last bit of notable Cosmere news from the State of the Sanderson post is that soon we'll be reading Cosmere novels from more authors than just Sanderson himself. Both Isaac Stewart and Dan Wells are working on writing works in the Cosmere, which will release sometime in the next few years. Stewart is Sanderson's longtime artist collaborator who runs the Creative Development portion of Dragonsteel. Wells is the author of the John Cleaver series of supernatural horror books as well as a longtime friend and frequent podcast collaborator of Sanderson's. Wells also now runs the Narrative department of Dragonsteel. It's a growing corporation over there!

"I’ve built an extensive outline, and I’m working with Brandon and Isaac on some amazing worldbuilding, and I love it all," Wells said of his Cosmere book. "This is a story I’ve wanted to write for literally years, and having the opportunity to co-write it with Brandon is a dream come true."

There are plenty of other interesting tidbits in this year's State of the Sanderson post. If you'd like a look behind the curtain on the author's process and business it's very much worth a read.

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